The First World War appears as a fault line in Britain’s twentieth-century history. Between August 1914 and November 1918 the titanic struggle against Imperial Germany and her allies consumed more people, more money and more resources than any other conflict that Britain had hitherto experienced. For the first time, it opened up a Home Front that stretched into all parts of the British polity, society and culture, touching the lives of every citizen regardless of age, gender and class: vegetables were even grown in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. Britain and World War One throws attention on these civilians who fought the war on the Home Front. Harnessing recent scholarship, and drawing on original documents, oral testimony and historical texts, this book casts a fresh look over different aspects of British society during the four long years of war. It revisits the early war enthusiasm and the making of Kitchener’s new armies; the emotive debates over conscription; the relationships between politics, government and popular opinion; women working in wartime industries; the popular experience of war and the question of social change. This book also explores areas of wartime Britain overlooked by recent histories, including the impact of the war on rural society; the mobilization of industry and the importance of technology; responses to air raids and food and housing shortages; and the challenges to traditional social and sexual mores and wartime culture. Britain and World War One is essential reading for all students and interested lay readers of the First World War.

While a plethora of studies have discussed why so many men decided to volunteer for the army during the Great War, the experiences of those who were called up under conscription have received relatively little scrutiny. Even when the implementation of the respective Military Service Acts has been investigated, scholars have usually focused on only the distinct minority of those eligible who expressed conscientious objections. It is rare to see equal significance placed on the fact that substantial numbers of men appealed, or were appealed for, on the grounds that their domestic, business, or occupational circumstances meant they should not be expected to serve. David Littlewood analyses the processes undergone by these men, and the workings of the bodies charged with assessing their cases, through a sustained transnational comparison of the British and New Zealand contexts.

"A Superb New Biography . . . A Tragic Story, Brilliantly Told." —Andrew Roberts, Literary Review George Nathaniel Curzon's controversial life in public service stretched from the high noon of his country's empire to the traumatized years following World War I. As viceroy of India under Queen Victoria and foreign secretary under King George V, the obsessive Lord Curzon left his unmistakable mark on the era. David Gilmour's award-winning book—with a new foreword by the author—is a brilliant assessment of Curzon's character and achievements, offering a richly dramatic account of the infamous long vendettas, the turbulent friendships, and the passionate, risky love affairs that complicated and enriched his life. Born into the ruling class of what was then the world's greatest power, Curzon was a fervent believer in British imperialism who spent his life proving he was fit for the task. Often seen as arrogant and tempestuous, he was loathed as much as he was adored, his work disparaged as much as it was admired. In Gilmour's well-rounded appraisal, Curzon emerges as a complex, tragic figure, a gifted leader who saw his imperial world overshadowed at the dawn of democracy.

This book considers the use made by Irish Republicans of British courts in the struggle for independence, over the period between the Easter Rising and the Civil War. It examines the complex relationship between the Republican movement and the British legal order: Republican ideology demanded a boycott of British legal institutions in Ireland and committed Republicans to refuse to recognize the authority of British courts. The Republican movement established its own revival court structure - yet Republicans were simultaneously able to make effective use of British courts to promote a separatist agenda. This book offers new insight, from original sources, into Sinn Fein's most celebrated use of British courts - the challenges to death sentences imposed by martial law courts in 1921 - as well as lesser-known aspects of Sin Fein's legal strategy: the use of coroner's inquests and claims for compensation; legal challenges in the English courts to the policy of court-material and internment; and the co-ordinated defence of those captured in the course of the Republican military campaign in Britain 1920-1.

No serious historian or enthusiast working on the First World War can afford to be without this major reference work. The National Archives, the archives of England, Wales and the United Kingdom - holds the most comprehensive and important collection of official documentary records relating to Britain's involvement in the war. Here, for the first time, within thematically arranged sections, this wealth of material is systematically listed and explained. Sources of every conceivable aspect of the war are covered, from government decision making and the military conduct of the war in all arenas to home front issues such as food supply and the management of morale. Some generally unknown or unused records are detailed here for the first time and cover topics such as attitudes to the conflict in British universities, war finance and labour. The thematic arrangement also reveals at a glance all the details available for key areas such as gas warfare, military intelligence, the role of women and strategic bombing. This new guide is the essential launchpad for more in depth study as well as a goldmine of fascinating information for anyone interested in wartime history. It is an indispensable companion to the official sources of the First World War, the most comprehensive, authoritative and up to date guide on the market.

The Great War is a collection of seven original essays and three critical comments by senior scholars dealing with the greatest conflict in modern history to its time - the 1914-18 World War. The Great War is edited by the distinguished historian of the First World War, R.J.Q.Adams.

In this book historian R.J.Q. Adams examines the policy of appeasement--so frequently praised as realistic and statesman-like in its day and commonly condemned as wrong-headed and even wicked in ours. Exciting and thoroughly accessible, this work explains the motivations and goals of the principal policy-makers, including Chamberlain, Lord Hailfax, and Sir John Simon, as well as those of the chief critics: Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, and others.